Wilhelm [von] Bode with the assistance of C. Hofstede de Groot. The Complete Work of Rembrandt. 4, Paris, 1900, pp. 27, 124, 126, no. 267, pl. 267, as "A Young Woman Resting Her Right Hand with a Fan on the Back of a Chair," in the Havemeyer collection.

C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 6, London, 1916, pp. 359, 399–400, no. 871, states that it was possibly in the collection of Herman Becker in Amsterdam, and may be listed in the inventory of his estate, October 19, 1678.

John C. van Dyke. Rembrandt and His School. New York, 1923, p. 87, tentatively ascribes this picture and its pendant to Flinck.

Alan Burroughs. Art Criticism from a Laboratory. Boston, 1938, p. 157, notes that "the vagueness and flatness of the underpaint" relate the portraits to Bol, and states that "it would be rash to assume that Bol could not have painted them"; states that the woman's face was repainted in the eighteenth century .

Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 65, 256, describes how Durand-Ruel bought this picture and its pendant for the Havemeyers from the princesse de Sagan in June 1892 for $100,000 [sic].

This work is the pendant to "Portrait of a Man with a Breastplate and Plumed Hat" (MMA 29.100.102).

Ref. Hofstede de Groot 1916 suggests that this picture may have been in the collection of Herman Backer, Amsterdam, and included in the inventory of his estate, October 19, 1678. The inventory, published in A. Bredius, "Rembrandtiana," in Oud-Holland 28 (1910), lists a portrait of a woman resting her hand on a chair, by Rembrandt; there is, however, no conclusive evidence that this is the MMA painting.

Ref. Dutuit 1885 states that the pendants may come from the Erard sale of 1832. The sale includes a pair of pendant portraits by Rembrandt as no. 118, "Portraits de deux époux," but the MMA pictures vary in several details from the description in the sale catalogue.